British India (1757–1947)
The story of British India begins commercially with the English East India Company (EIC), chartered by Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. From a coastal trading concern in Surat (1612) and Madras (1639), the Company evolved into the territorial sovereign of much of the subcontinent after the mid-eighteenth century.
The right to collect land revenue and administer civil justice. The East India Company secured the diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II by the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765 after winning the Battle of Buxar.
From trade to dominion (1757–1857)
The political turning point was the Battle of Plassey (23 June 1757), where Robert Clive defeated Bengal's young Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, helped by the treachery of Mir Jafar. Seven years later the more decisive Battle of Buxar (1764) crushed the joint army of Mir Qasim of Bengal, Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh and Emperor Shah Alam II, securing for the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa (1765).
The Company then expanded by treaty and conquest:
- Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767–1799) — Tipu Sultan killed at Seringapatam, 1799.
- Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775–1818) — broke the Maratha Confederacy.
- Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845–1849) — annexation of the Punjab.
- Doctrine of Lapse under Lord Dalhousie (1848–56) absorbed Satara, Jhansi, Nagpur and Awadh.
The Revolt of 1857
Discontent over the greased Enfield cartridges, annexation policies, racial arrogance and economic distress exploded in the Mutiny / War of Independence of 1857. Beginning at Meerut on 10 May 1857, sepoys marched on Delhi and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar their emperor. Major centres of revolt included Kanpur (Nana Sahib), Jhansi (Rani Lakshmibai), Lucknow (Begum Hazrat Mahal), and Bareilly. By mid-1858 the British had crushed the uprising. Its consequences were sweeping:
- The Government of India Act 1858 transferred power from the Company to the Crown.
- Queen Victoria's Proclamation (1 November 1858) promised non-interference in religion and equal opportunity.
- The Mughal dynasty was abolished; Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled to Rangoon.
- In 1876, Victoria was declared Empress of India (Royal Titles Act).
- 1600 — EIC chartered by Elizabeth I.
- 1757 — Battle of Plassey.
- 1765 — Diwani of Bengal granted to the Company.
- 1857 — Revolt of 1857 ("First War of Independence").
- 1858 — Crown takes over India; end of Mughal rule.
- 1947 — Indian Independence Act partitions British India.
Constitutional milestones
| Act / Event | Year | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Regulating Act | 1773 | First parliamentary intervention; Warren Hastings made Governor-General |
| Pitt's India Act | 1784 | Dual control: Board of Control + Court of Directors |
| Charter Act | 1813 | Ended EIC monopoly except in tea & China; allowed missionaries |
| Charter Act | 1833 | Governor-General of India; Macaulay's Law Commission |
| Government of India Act | 1858 | Crown rule; office of Secretary of State |
| Indian Councils Act | 1861 | Indians admitted as non-official members |
| Indian Councils Act (Morley–Minto) | 1909 | Separate electorates for Muslims |
| Government of India Act (Montagu–Chelmsford) | 1919 | Dyarchy in provinces |
| Government of India Act | 1935 | Provincial autonomy; federal scheme |
| Indian Independence Act | 1947 | Created the Dominions of India and Pakistan |
Economy, society and reform
British rule reshaped the subcontinent's economy through commercialisation of agriculture, the railways (first line Bombay–Thane 1853), the telegraph (1851), and English-medium education following Macaulay's Minute on Education (1835). Yet de-industrialisation of handicrafts, famines (the Bengal Famine of 1770, the Great Famine of 1876–78, the Bengal Famine of 1943), and discriminatory tariffs left the colonial balance sheet deeply contested.
Social reform movements responded vigorously: Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Brahmo Samaj (1828), Dayanand Saraswati's Arya Samaj (1875), Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's Aligarh Movement (MAO College 1875) and the Deoband seminary (1866) each addressed religious and educational renewal.
Always pair 1858 (Crown rule begins, EIC ended) with 1876 (Victoria proclaimed Empress) — examiners love this twin trick. Likewise pair 1905 (Bengal Partition) with 1911 (Annulment) as cause-and-effect of Muslim political organisation.
Towards partition
Three forces converged after 1885 to produce the constitutional revolution of 1947:
- Indian National Congress (1885) — founded by A. O. Hume; initially moderate.
- All-India Muslim League (1906, Dhaka) — defending Muslim political interests.
- British constitutional concessions — culminating in the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935.
The Lucknow Pact (1916) briefly united Congress and the League; the Khilafat Movement (1919–24), the Civil Disobedience campaigns of 1930–34 and the Quit India Movement (1942) kept up pressure. After the Second World War, a bankrupt Britain conceded swiftly: the Cabinet Mission (1946), the failed grouping plan, the Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947), and finally the Indian Independence Act of 18 July 1947 divided the subcontinent into the two new dominions on 14–15 August 1947.